Weather Watch

This month of February certainly did not support the Global Warming Theory as it was both colder and snowier than normal, including one of the largest snowstorms on record, the famous or infamous Valentines Day Snowstorm. The average high for the month was 23.5 degrees and the average low was 6.3 degrees giving us an average temperature of 14.9 degrees, 5.9 degrees below normal and the third coldest on record. The two colder Februarys were in 1993 when the average temperature was 12.5 degrees and in 1994 when the average was 14.5 degrees. The warmest February was in 1998 when the average temperature was 27.8 degrees. This is only the 6th February on record when the average temperature was colder than January, as January is normally the coldest month. The highest temperature, 40 degrees, was recorded on the 27th and the lowest, -10, was recorded on the 19th. There were five days with readings below zero compared to an average of six. After such a warm early January, the temperature remained below freezing from January 13th until February 20th, a period of 38 days. The month produced 1397 degree days bringing the seasonal total to 5482. Snowfall was the biggest story of the month as a record 34.7 inches fell, most of it in one very large storm. The previous record amount, 32.3 inches, fell in 1993. The least amount of snow, 3 inches, fell in 1999. The Valentine's Day storm dumped a whopping 29.8 inches of snow with larger amounts recorded in some areas. The largest single storm on record was on January 26th and 27th of 1986 when 30.5 inches fell. Our seasonal total is now 47.6 inches which is still 10.3 inches below normal. The large snowfall resulted in the 2nd largest melted precipitation amount of 3.34 inches on record. The largest amount of melted precipitation was the 3.08 inches that was recorded on the 14th from the 2nd largest snowstorm on record. The most melted precipitation was 3.63 inches measured in 1982 and the least was 0.35 inches measured in 1987. Precipitation was measured on only 5 days and brings our yearly total to 6.96 inches. The river reached its highest level of 7.00 feet on the 20th and its lowest level of 3.37 feet on the 27th. The very high reading was due to the large amount of snow and the cold temperatures blocking the river below the gauge. Also the gauge malfunctioned from February 6th through the 12th.